The Social Science History Association is now looking for a new editor or
editorial team to take on the task of running the SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY
journal beginning in 1996. Experience has shown that editors need space,
graduate student help, and a university willing to shoulder overhead and
mailing costs. Interested persons should contact: Maris Vinovskis, History
Department, 3601 Haven Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
48109; tel. (313)663-9744; email: Maris.Vinovskis@um.cc.imich.edu. The
following report from the current editors appears in SSHA News and
provides suggestions for interested parties and ideas for what needs to be
done to put out a quality journal.
Report of the Editors of SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY
To the next editors of SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY, whoever you are:
1995-1996 is the last year that SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY will be edited
at the University of Minnesota. Those of us who have worked on the
journal during its term here have really enjoyed having it here. (Trust us
-- bi-weekly editorial board meetings have been among the highlights of
our calendars, especially in months like February.) Working on the journal
has been a great way for us to hear about the innovative and wide ranging
research conducted by social science historians, and to help shape the
field as well. All of this pleasure and power can now be yours if you bring
the journal to your institution. We encourage SSHA members who are
interested in editing the journal to begin serious discussions with
colleagues, deans and members of the SSHA Publications Committee as
soon as possible. Proposal time is at hand. We're happy to do our part by
discussing the nuts-and-bolts of editing with any interested parties.
Here, we'll simply note a few of the resources we've called upon,
innovations we've made, and the lessons we've learned that might inform
your thinking about the possibility of bringing SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY
into your life.
Co-editing makes a lot of sense. (There have been four of us sharing the
Editorial role during SSH's time at Minnesota.) This means that the work
is shared, of course, and the board meetings are a lot more fun than
sitting in your office alone and deciding on the fate of manuscripts. The
intellectual resources brought to bear on decisions are manifestly
increased as well, and besides, you can ask someone else to sign the
letters of rejection. (Rus Menard has served as our "Corresponding Editor"
-- which means he's been willing to sign bad news letter he didn't even
write, and the one he did write were often masterpieces. He was on at
least one occasion thanked by an author because of the graciousness and
helpfulness of his letter of rejection!)
Get the support required to hire a good Editorial Assistant, preferably
someone with experience with editorial workflow. I'd definitely make
sure to hire either Susannah Smith or Katherine Meerse (both current
Minnesota History graduate students) to serve as your Editorial Assistant,
but I hope that by the time you are ready to hire, they will be otherwise
employed and submitting their own manuscripts to you. They really made
things work, kept the manuscripts flowing smoothly, and on schedule, and
kept the peripatetic and occasionally (only occasionally!) disorganized
editors in line!
Definitely recruit a Graduate Student Editorial Board, cross-disciplinary
of course! These Board members also shared the work at every stage of
the editorial process. (They did everything that the co-editors did except
make final decisions on the disposition of the manuscripts and write the
letters stating and explaining the Editor's recommendation.) They kept the
co-editors up to date and knew fields and specialties that the four of us
don't know. And they usually told the best jokes at board meetings.
Keep a record of reviewers. We have found that the best way of improving
our turnaround time and overall time between submission and publication
was to know who can be counted on to do quick and helpful reviews (as
well as knowing who's too terse, too scathing etc. to be useful to us and to
authors....) Many of the folks now serving on the journal's larger editorial
board were invited to join because of their excellent contributions as
manuscript reviewers. Who says good works don't get rewarded in this
life?
Maybe don't use the yellow covers again!...
Ron Aminzade
Mary Jo Maynes
Russell R. Menard
Steven Ruggles
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